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How to motivate resistant learners

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, May 24, 2007

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One of the basic principles of adult learning is that adults are self-directed learners. But what happens when adults direct themselves not to learn? All staff development specialists face the challenge of motivating learners who don't want to participate in a given learning activity. How can you deal with this problem and maintain your own positive attitude? Here are some things to keep in mind:

• The problem of resistant learners is never going to vanish. As long as you are in the education business, you will face learners who seem to make it their vocation to hamper learning activities. This is one of the ongoing challenges that all staff-development specialists face on a fairly regular basis.
• Don't blame yourself for someone's lack of motivation. True, there are poorly designed and implemented learning activities, but in most cases, you are not responsible for a colleague's willingness to learn.
• You will not improve motivation by ignoring or accepting the resistant learners' attitudes and behaviors. This will only make the disruption of the educational activity worse, interfere with willing participants' abilities to learn, and hamper your ability to effectively implement education. You may need to make some unpopular decisions and take difficult actions to deal with these challenges.

Editor's note: The above excerpt is from the online course "Nursing CE Series: Successful Strategies for Training Your Nursing Staff." For more information on this and other courses in our library, go to http://www.hcprofessor.com.

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